From the Archives

A small cascade at Mount Mitchell State Park. Taken summer of 2007. 

I decided this week, for the first time in years, to pull out my light box and rummage through all the slides I shot from the time I was a kid up through college.

I started doing photojournalism, even if I didn't realize at the time, in the 7th grade while shooting for the middle school newspaper, but for most of my life nature photography was my world.

I was struck by how lousy most of my work from college was. I think a pivotal moment in my development as a photographer was my senior year in college, in summer of 2007 to be exact.

I had been doing photography since childhood, and always thought I was good at it. But after largely ignoring my camera in favor of new pursuits like rock climbing, fencing and a social life, I picked the camera back up my senior year only to find that I wasn't as good as I thought I was.

And it made me mad, even embarrassed.

In my state of humility I decided to get serous about my passion and start honing my skills and learning how to see.

If I can look back 5-10 years ago and see such a huge difference, I wonder what I'll think five years down the line when I look back at the work I'm doing now?

I'm hoping the best is yet to come. =)

Sunset over Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains, summer of 2007. 

Exploring an abandoned mine shaft into the side of Crowders Mountain. 2008. 

Sunset at Jockey's Ridge State Park on the Outer Banks.

Jockey's Ridge

I took a trip to Jockey's Ridge State park Monday to enjoy a beautiful sunny day with temperatures that couldn't have been over 80 degrees (the forecast called for a high of 75). I don't think the summer will be offering up many more days with temperatures this pleasant.

I've been to the park several times, but always as part of a larger trip with my family, and there was never enough time to explore the whole park.

So armed with my camera gear I wandered around the park, climbing 50 foot high dunes and traipsing through the small wooded areas in the park (it's not all sand). The weather was fantastic and people were playing in the sand, hand gliding, and flying model airplanes and kites all over the dunes.

(Note to self: bring a kite on next trip to Jockey's Ridge).

The trip wasn't productive for photography, but that's OK, since it was mostly a scouting / exploring trip anyway. Any good pictures I got would just be gravy.

The shot above was taken in the afternoon, but I returned to a similar vantage point near sunset, hoping to get a similar composition, except with hundreds of people on the ridge line instead of a few dozen, all silhouetted against a dramatic sky.

The hundreds of sunset watchers showed up on cue, but the dramatic sunset never happened, obscured by low clouds that rolled in. I guess I'll just have to go back again. Soon.